We celebrate braille not simply because some blind people use it for reading by touch, but for what Louis Braille’s work represents in terms of our cultural and intellectual emancipation.
The history of tactile literacy is vital for blind people today to understand the struggle for accessible reading and writing, reinforcing the significance of advocacy in technological advancement. This heritage demonstrates the resilience of the blind community in asserting our right to literacy, education, and independence. It also fosters pride in braille as a cultural and intellectual achievement, encouraging its continued use and innovation in an era of rapidly evolving technology.
Before braille was widely adopted, various systems attempted to make reading accessible, including embossed Roman letters and alternative raised symbols. Many of these well-intentioned systems were ultimately found to be slow to reproduce and suboptimal for clearly and comprehensively representing written language in a form that can accurately be perceived by touch.
This page serves as a useful starting point for anyone wishing to explore this rich heritage. You will discover the intense competition between different approaches to tactile reading, meet the historians and collectors studying the history of tactile literacy, and learn how and why braille prevailed as the premier tactile system for millions of blind touch readers around the world.
Reading List
- Campsie, Philippa, ‘Charles Barbier: A hidden story’, Disability Studies Quarterly 41/2 (2021): Charles Barbier: A hidden story | Disability Studies Quarterly
- Godin, Leona, There Plant Eyes: A Personal and Cultural History of Blindness (New York, 2021).
- Hare, Taylor and Gulledge, John, ‘Marking Readers: Pain, Pleasure, and the Nineteenth-Century Tactile Book’, Inscription 4 (2023) pp. 8-16: 6_MarkingReaders.pdf
- Hayhoe, Simon, God, Money, and Politics: English Attitudes to Blindness and Touch, from the Enlightenment to Integration (Charlotte, 2008)
- Oliphant, John, ‘“Touching the Light”: the invention of literacy for the blind’, Paedagogica Historica, 44/1-2 (2008) pp. 67-82.
- Oliphant, John, ‘Changing perspectives on the value of literacy to blind persons as reflected in the production, dissemination and reception of publications in raised type in Britain c. 1820-1905’, Unpublished PhD thesis (2011). University of London: Changing perspectives on the value of literacy to blind persons as reflected in the production, dissemination and reception of publications in raised type in Britain c.1820-1905 – UCL Discovery
- Olsén, Jan Eric, ‘Models for the Blind’, 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century, 19 (2014): Olsén | Models for the Blind | 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century
- Paterson, Mark, Seeing with the hands: blindness, vision, and touch after Descartes (Edinburgh, 2016).
- Phillips, Gordon, The Blind in British Society: Charity, State and Community, c. 1780-1930 (Aldershot, 2004).
- Warne, Vanessa, ‘“So that the sense of touch may supply the want of sight”: Blind Reading and Nineteenth-Century British Print Culture.’ in C. Colligan and M. Linley (eds.), Media, Technology, and Literature in the Nineteenth Century: Image, Sound, Touch (Surrey, 2011) pp. 43-64.
- Weygand, Zina, The Blind in French Society from the Middle Ages to the Century of Louis Braille, trans. Emily-Jane Cohen (Stanford, 2009).